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Sura Saia
An ugly monstrosity of metal and stone, a grim feat of engineering built by generations of slave labor over the course of the hundred year war: Sura Saia, the altar of blood. A prison labor camp dedicated to the snake god of hunger and murder, it is a panopticon that spans the surface of an entire island, where the empire's greatest foes are sent to die a slow death. Yuan-ti, Medusa, and Basilisk serve as jailors to this place, and everything is overseen by its warden, Bho'bi the Beholder. Areas Inside # Central Tower # Barracks # Cell Blocks # Mess Hall # Monster Pens # Yard # Food Processing # Latrines Outside # Silo # Morgue # Docks A Prisoner's Perspective Your first glimpse of Sura Saia will be from the hold of a Yuan-ti prison carrier. Your low vantage point will make it seem as if its 70-foot tall blackstone walls go on forever. You'll find a veritable fleet of ships across the island's rocky coast, all unloading prisoners like you and loading crates of preserved meat. The grating screech of salt-corroded iron will pierce your ears as tons of packed meat are wheeled to the docks on flatbed carts running on tracks. You'll be marched through the massive iron gates by your jailors. An entire gang of you, chained to each other by the ankles and wrists, marching in a beleaguered cadence. A preview of your life to come will await you in this half of the panopticon's center. Thick black clouds of biting flies harass prison-laborers toiling in the noonday sun. They work rapidly decaying meat on butcher blocks and salt racks, chopping, bleeding, drying, and salting hundreds of pounds of meat. Salt of sweat or sea and the iron of blood intermingle so thickly in the air that you'll taste it just by breathing. Despite your best efforts not to, you’ll gag. Away from the butcher's gallery, you'll be led to the cell blocks across the town-sized prison yard. The central watch tower will loom over you. Equidistant from each of the outer walls, its peak is a capstone of glass. The glare of the sun will prevent you from seeing its inhabitants. Prevent you from knowing which direction the warden directs his gaze, but for reasons unknown… you’ll be sure it’s upon you at the moment. Later you’ll find that it’s near impossible to escape the warden’s notice. Not while he’s in the tower. You’ll pass a hundred sets of eyes. The cell blocks each stand six stories high, their bellies open to the yard so that each prisoner can see and be seen from the center. The prisoners will yell and jeer, weep and beg, scream and rave as you pass. Soon enough they’ll take up a chant. It’ll begin from the west wards, carrying slowly towards the east wards until it’s loud enough to shake the ground. “FRESH MEAT! FRESH MEAT! FRESH MEAT!” Your escort will get twitchy. A few minutes more of chanting and they’re ready to shoot arrows into the exposed cell blocks. It’ll only take a single volley to silence the rowdiest prisoners. Your escort will nod up to the perimeter towers and the archers will nock their arrows, immediately silencing the crowd. Atop each cell block a perimeter watchtower looks both into the yard and outside the walls. A platoon of bowmen stands ready at each, waiting to fill the sky with the contents of their quivers. Unchained from the others, you’ll be subjected to a battery of tests and tortures designed to measure the amount of danger you represent versus the amount of labor you can be expected to do. When all is said and done, it will have been 48 hours later and you’ll have spent at least half of that drifting in and out of consciousness. The other half will have been spent screaming. The relief of the cell will comfort you. You won’t be entirely sure if the blood soaking into the stone is yours or the previous inhabitant’s, but for now at least you’re expected only to rest. You’ll drift slowly into sweet oblivion and into your first official day at the altar of blood: Sura Saia.